Teal is not normally a colour that everyone is drawn to, it can be
thought of a bit loud for some tastes to be honest. However you may
admire it from afar but never get tempted to buy a tester pot and try it
out at home. It’s more a holiday colour, akin to the intense turquoise
of the tropical seas, the colour of wooden shutters on those
picturesque little white-washed Greek houses. It’s for summer and sun,
and much too intense for our cool, temperate climate.

But this season clearly shows that Teal is the “in” colour.

Winter
has taken its toll with dark days and nights, whilst this shade of
turquoise blue is uplifting and cheery, and maybe just a bit exotic. It
lends itself to touches of oriental and bohemian styling and fits well
with equally intense raspberry colours and shades of red It’s a colour
that can take strong patterns and layered textures.

But if all of this teal is too spicy for your tastes, don’t worry. There is a way to
introduce it into the home without shocking the neighbours. Use it as an
accent colour on one stand-out piece of furniture. It’s a great colour
to liven up a neutral scheme or to create a statement, and any one of
these pieces would look sensational in a hall to welcome guests, or in a
living space to draw the eye.

A touch of
white goes a long way to cooling down this explosion to the senses,
but
don’t add too much or it will dilute the effect. A few accessories, a
lampshade or a cushion is all that is needed.

Or use accessories to introduce the colour in a much more subtle way.

To confirm this, just look at the colours for
the Spring Show advert as below:

Spring Fair 2016

So what is a Trade Show all about ?

Many of our customers ask what happens when we go away to these Trade events and what a fantastic time we must have.... The two main trade shows we attend is the January Furniture Show and the February Spring Fair, both are held at the NEC in Birmingham. The Spring Fair is the largest event covering some 15 Halls of suppliers broken down into different categories and runs from a Sunday to Thursday.

We usually travel down on the Friday, stopping around Perth area and then complete to Birmingham on the Saturday, we tend to get a hotel in the City Centre so we can escape at evening and relax.
Sunday is a very busy day at the Show with lots of visitors and sometimes the stands are too busy to get onto, so it`s more a case of wandering around seeing if there is anything to grab the attention
in the main halls. We will have already scanned the Program to see what trends are up and coming and where we should look. We try to get a train to the NEC and arrive around 10:30am decide which
Supplier / products we wish to view and go have a look, get engaged by an agent whom shows you the products discusses options on purchase, pricing, delivery costs, delivery timescales and more
importantly minimum quantity ordering. As we are not an Argos and do not have the mass buying power we tend to look at buying smaller quantities of ones and twos and then realise we need to
order 4 x coffee tables so that means we have to spend more and store the product hoping they will sell. It`s about understanding what`s on offer and agreeing what will work for both the
wholesaler and us.

A big example of the complexity is Christmas, so here we are in February and we are in one huge hall full of tinsel, decorations, santas, snowmen, animated Elf`s and Reindeer, stand after stand
of all styles of Christmas from luxury expensive to very, very cheap products. We have to look around and see who provides the stock we are looking for and if we can get one supplier to provide
a wide range and save lots of duplicate conversations with multiple smaller suppliers.
We look around the chosen stand with the Sales Rep as they discuss this year`s trends for Christmas, the colours available and what quantity of minimum order is required. It`s then a case of sitting
and making a decision about what our customers would like and what went well last year and what could go well this year. Some nice ideas and designs on classic Christmas are available, along with
more quirky ideas that are not really suitable for us and therefore difficult to sell.
After more talking, a cup of coffee we then go around the stand with a scanner deciding what to buy and watching the spend go up and up and up, will we really sell all those wind up Santa`s in kilts
or be left with dead stock ! There is no perfect answer as it`s about using knowledge and experience to get something to work. We leave the stand after 3 hours and feel all `Christmas`d out`
Onto the next one.

We can spend all day talking and looking at new products whilst keeping an eye on the spending and thinking our feet are tired again and when can we go home.
We leave around 6pm each day armed with lots of catalogues and brochures to read over dinner, all we wish to do is sit in the hotel and sleep !
So each day we attack another Hall and think will this compete with the other products or compliment them, sometimes we see something as a one off and think “yes” that is brill and we know instantly
our customers would love it so make a snap decision. It is also about looking at the trends what others are buying and listening to the wholesaler`s advice.
By time Thursday comes we are worn out and spend the last morning at the show as it is then quiet and place some final orders with existing suppliers and aim to leave around 2pm so we can head back
up the Motorway, fight with traffic and grab a Hotel half way before getting home on Friday.

Alongside all this off course the team in the shop are running as normal and we are always on the phone sorting out the deliveries and other bits and bobs whilst away, so in no way is it a Jolly Holiday!
It is nice to get home to relax back to normal.

Riverside Interiors provides complete home furnishing for
modern living.